Editorial: Leahy has historic opportunity

[cali]

December 3, 2006

Friends and staff of Sen. Patrick Leahy are already talking about the opportunity now before him to establish a legacy that will place him among the most important senators in Vermont history.

It will not be about the pork he is able to secure from his position on the Appropriations Committee or his long-term work for the interests of the state's dairy farmers. It will be his legacy as a defender of the U.S. Constitution.

Leahy has been almost giddy since the elections last month, with the prospect that he will become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the challenges before him are serious indeed.

As chairman he will have the power to focus on the numerous ways that the Bush administration has worked to skirt and undermine the constitutional limits on executive power, straying into activities that might be judged illegal or even criminal. A successful effort to rein in the abuses of the Bush administration will place Leahy in the history books alongside Sen. Ralph Flanders of Vermont, who was instrumental in challenging the abuses of Sen. Joseph McCarthy — except Leahy's challenge is even greater and the abuses more serious than those of the senator from Wisconsin whose name has become synonymous with an era of thuggery and paranoia.

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http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/NEWS/612030301/1038/OPINION01

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Am I correct

that the repukes changed the rules so the chair of the Judiciary Committee has much more investigative power? This will help Leahy get to the bottom of this whole sorry mess.

[ThomWV]

2. It Really Doesn't Matter If They Did - We Are In Charge Of The Rules Now

So if the rules do not permit him to investigate as he sees fit it is now possible for us to change to rules to give him that ability.

Ain't winning sweet?

[wellstone dem]

3. but there is more sweet justice to be able to do these criminals in

with their own rules.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. yeah, wellstone dem,

that was my point. They are hoist by their own petard.

[Toots]

5. Wasn't it Leahy that Cheney told to "Get Fucked" on the Senate floor?

I expect to see Cheney in front of that committee testifying "under oath"..

[cali]

6. It was and it was

because of Leahy's agressive stance toward Halliburton and Cheney's ties to said company.